Pio Pio! says the little bird in Spanish! Your little bird will chirp joyfully in these precious MaryJane’s – the sweetheart of all sweetheart shoes. Pio Pio pleases with a purple leather bird silhouette set strikingly against a shimmery white gold base and a button-shaped cutout with gold leather “X” on the closure.

Shoe Sizing Info ~ Livie & Luca's Pio Pio shoes run from American children's size 4 to size 13 and youth sizes 1-4. Their toddler shoes generally fit pre-walkers to preschool aged children. A professional can determine the exact size and width of a child's foot and will be helpful in making an initial selection. In absence of professional help, to get the most perfect fit for Livie & Luca toddler shoes, Livie and Luca recommends printing out and using their sizing chart for kids. Click here for the chart, a PDF file, which will appear on your desktop. Print it and measure your little one's feet with it.

A note about arch support from Livie+Luca: Arch support for children should be different than arch support for adults, since a child's arch typically does not develop until puberty and it is detrimental to provide excess arch support. A young child often has a "fat" pad in the arch area of the foot, which makes their foot look flat, but it's actually a natural arch support. Their feet also feature cartilage that won't completely harden into bones until they are 18, so it's important to not alter their natural foot growth. We do not include arch supports in our shoes for this reason, and it is also why doctors recommend not passing down shoes to siblings or making due with ill-fitting shoes.

Livie and Luca footwear features bold designs and fanciful modern touches that capture the playful, jovial essence of childhood. Their designs are inspired by nature, folklore, vintage and the rich imagination of children. They're also about comfort and durability. The people behind L&L want kids to be able to navigate playgrounds, city streets and dirt pathways with style and ease. Livie & Luca uses brightly colored velvety soft leathers and other textiles to bring the utmost comfort and resilience to their shoes.

Livie and Luca footwear is handmade. The company takes great pride in their artisanship, from the design, to materials, to their construction.

Treading Lightly ~

Here are some ways that Livie and Luca do their part to reduce their footprint on the planet: - Factory workers are from the local town, or live on-site, mostly walking or riding a bicycle to work. - They make efforts to work with companies that use no harmful chemicals in their leather tanning process. - All their leather is lead-free.- Non-toxic glue is used in the production of their shoes. - Customers can send back their gently-worn Livie & Luca shoes for donation to a non-profit that coordinates the distribution of shoes for families in need. - Reusable cloth bags made of PET (recycled plastic bottles) are used for packaging. - Their shoe boxes are made of 50% recycled paper. - Brochures, business cards and postcards are printed on post-consumer product and use soy ink.

At My Little Green Shop, we ask questions about the production practises of the companies we carry. We will not carry brands if it appears that their products are made unethically. We were quite pleased with what we discovered about Livie and Luca when it comes to their business practises and standards.

Livie and Luca's Factory Conditions:

At Livie & Luca they feel that it is imperative to have first-hand knowledge of how their shoes are made. For that reason, they have personally visited their factories in China and Mexico for an extended period, meeting with both managers and employees.

Here are details that they share about their factory’s practices: - They pay a competitive salary, which is significantly more than the minimum wage. - Their factories maintain their worker base because they offer steady year-round work, which is not typical. - Employees work seven hours a day, six days per week and accrue vacation time apart from the national holidays. - Housing is provided for employees who do not live locally. - Apart from the mandatory health insurance that is provided for each employee, the factory also coordinates and provides yearly medical exams for its employees. - Factory equipment and the work environment are checked for safety on a regular basis. - Factory owners care about their employees and are very much involved in the shoe-making process.

CPSIA Certified:

Livie & Luca's commitment to safety includes rigorous testing, and environmentally sound practices. Harmful lead levels have not been detected in Livie & Luca shoes. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) created the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in 2008, creating new regulations and testing requirements for children's products. With few exceptions, all children's products manufactured must not contain more than 100 parts per million (ppm) of total lead content in accessible parts. For paint, this level drops to 0.009 percent (90 ppm) of total lead content in accessible parts (source: http://www.cpsc.gov/info/toysafety/lead.html.

L + L is a conscious business that takes safety and environmental standards very seriously. According to third party test results, their shoes are CPSIA compliant. They use labs that have been accredited by the CPSC to ensure their compliance.

Livie & Luca strongly believe in creating a better world for our children and so they donate 10% of online sales to charity. They also partner with their customers and Art for Humanity (artforhumnanity.org) to facilitate the donation of gently-worn shoes to children in Honduras. You send them back your gently worn shoes and they send them on. Children living in poverty are given possibly their first pair of shoes for school and protection from soil-borne infections caused by walking barefoot.